Puerto Rico has become the primary American front in the public-health fight against Zika, just as the health, economic, and social infrastructure needed to fight the virus are eroding. — A commonwealth in crisis, The Atlantic, 4/27/16

The great debate over statehood has to wait; that’s Rose and Jack on the Titanic asking, When’s our next date? — Lin-Manuel Miranda on the crisis in Puerto Rico, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, 4/24/16

“One of the titles I’ve given the map [above] is ‘Think geology, not nationality,’” Parag Khanna told the Washington Post. Click on the map to learn more about his new book Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization.

“My cheeks are soaked with the tears of my kupuna, and I long to wash these tears away under waterfalls that will be regained from the stones into which they have withered. Many of you know that water in Hawaii means wai, and ‘Hawaii’ without ‘wai’ is just ‘hai,’ which means broken.” — Rep. Kaniela Ing speaking to the Hawaii Legislature on impacts of contested diversions of Maui streams by sugar and real estate giant Alexander & Baldwin, House OKs bill preserving A&B water rights on Maui, Honolulu Star, 4/29/16

Critics worry that the commission is soft on holding the oil and gas industry responsible for such incidents, since — according to one watchdog group’s accounting — commissioners receive more than half of their campaign contributions from that sector. — Flooding flushes oil, chemicals into Texas rivers, Austin American Statesman, 4/30/16

Shortage sharing under negotiation by the Colorado River’s “lower basin” states of California, Arizona and Nevada will revisit allocations set when the states agreed on the construction of the Central Arizona Project, above, and shortage sacrifices agreed in 2007. For more on the construction of CAP, click on the photo from the federal Bureau of Reclamation.

Arizona would lose 512,000 acre-feet of its share if a first-level shortage is declared, compared with the 320,000 acre-feet it had agreed to cut based on 2007 negotiations. Nevada would sacrifice 21,000 acre-feet, up from its original 13,000. — Arizona may give up even more Colorado River water, Arizona Republic, 4/26/16

“There’s not technically a drought in the lower basin except a structural drought that they’ve created.” — Utahn / Colorado River “upper basin” water claimant Ron Thompson, general manager, Washington County Water Conservancy District, referring to “lower basin” water users in Nevada, California and Arizona, Lake Powell Pipeline proposal goes to federal review, The Spectrum, 4/29/16

… a California-centric bill sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein and a Western water bill sponsored by Rep. David Valadao both contain egregious, anti-environmental giveaways hidden behind modest provisions for modernizing California’s water system. — Op-ed, Peter Gleick, Congress is about to wipe out decades of progress in sustainable water use, Los Angeles Times, 4/28/16

“I’m always impressed by how intensely Canadians observe the United States and how so many Americans forget Canada exists.” — Novelist Jim Lynch, The lure of sailing; American novelist revels ‘where water, wind and sky collide,’ Edmonton Journal, 4/29/16